Coda
A somber toast for the coming year (redux)
Greg Bean
      This column first appeared Jan. 4, 2006. I think it's even more appropriate today than it was then. Things haven't gotten better in the last year. They've gotten worse, and our president is talking about sending even more young soldiers into harm's way. I hope you'll pardon the repetition, but I plan to run it every new year until our troops come home.
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Around Town
Communication goes to places never imagined
Amy Rosen
      My son recently found our family's original car phone from the 1980s in the basement. It was a full-size portable phone in a bag with a rechargeable battery that could be plugged into the cigarette lighter - an amazing invention at the time, like something out of a James Bond movie or "Get Smart" (minus the shoe). My son called it a "dinosaur.
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Are We There Yet?
She's got an encroacher in her very own family
Lori Clinch
      After giving birth to a house full of them, I've learned that the male of the species thinks about one thing and one thing only - sports. They live them, breathe them, and when push comes to shove on the football field of life, they call a penalty, move the ball back five yards and repeat third down.
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